The 2006 announcement of the Microsoft/Novell alliance to make Windows and SUSE Linux interoperate was controversial, to say the least, in the Linux community. Have your worst fears or best hopes been realized?

National Computing Centre, the UK’s large IT membership and research organization, took a look at the results and ongoing efforts in a report for its members published earlier this year. Among NCC’s conclusions:

• The Inter Operability Lab formed by Microsoft and Novell “is a unique facility very effectively developing original technologies while engaging with two different company cultures and that of the open source developer community.

• "Microsoft’s and Novell’s actions to build new products with interoperability in mind from the outset, and establishing relevant industry and open source community alliances to that end, clearly makes good sense.”

What’s your take on this alliance? Has it furthered enterprise acceptance of Linux?

The NCC report can be downloaded in PDF format at moreinterop.com/download.aspx?filePath=/upload/E/0/8/{E084C62C-DECA-4F5A-BE21-10C60F8211E1}ncc_white_paper_20100420.pdf

[About me: Pete Bartolik blogs for IDG on behalf of moreinterop.com from Novell and Microsoft]